Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Throwback: Tim in 1998

Here we go with the first of another set of a new series of posts paying homage to the Timbaland of yesteryear. This particular Tim article is going to have the old school Timbo heads drooling. It covers samples you may never have recognized, equipment that you may never have known Tim used even back then, and all sorts of juicy nuggets of Timbo lore.

It's pretty interesting to hear Tim's midset back then as compared to now. Now he talks about his production idols being Dr. Dre and Teddy Riley. Then it was Primo and Marley Marl. He says, "Premier? His beats are the grimiest. He's the king of the street. Boy, that's one of my idols. Him and Dr Dre, Marley Marl, Pete Roc" One thing that hasn't change though is Tim's desire to work with musicians outside the box. "I mean, I don't mind doing a pop song, but if I'm 'a do a pop song, I'm 'a do a pop song. But if it's going to be pop it's going to be alternative. I wanna work with people like Alanis Morissette, Prodigy, Metallica. That's more my style because I'm so different, over the edge. Tricky, Björk. I'm into all that type of music. In this studio right here all the groups come downstairs [to the Hammerstein Ballroom] so one day I got inspired by Prodigy. Man, they came in here and made me do a hit, just watching their show." Prodigy who knew?

My favorite part of the entire article though is Tim talks about the story behind Da Basement track "Love U Down." It's a track that is pure Timbaland with it's calssic drum stutter and various sounds yet Tim himself says "Devante did that, but that style came from me. That's my style. He put that style on Tupac's double CD too." What track is he referring too? None other than the Devante produced "No More Pain" from his All Eyez On Me double album which has longed been argued to be a Timbaland track. If you remember from the Remix Magazine interview earlier this year, it was "No More Pain" that caused Tim to break from Devante before Tim's new sound continued to be copied.

From shouts out to his Legion Of Doom band to his first meeting with Jimmy D this article has it all:

The Wire Timbaland Article 1998

BIG thanks to DJ Weizer for the article.

5 comments :

  1. I posted this last year sometime, but it fell through the cracks.
    Good to see it resurrected.

    Thanks

    Schmenkee!

    ReplyDelete
  2. it makes more sense for Dre to be one of his idols rather than dudes like Premo. i mean, as far as 'em both being dope, sure. but Premo's never really influenced the broader pop landscape like Timbo and Dre have, and his stuff's what i like to call "conservative" compared to someone like Timbo's style.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When tim talks of his favorite producers, Dre is the first one to come out of his mouth. Great interview

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  4. and wasn't 1998 like right around tim's best year? i mean, it was right around the rise of missy, right? what year was my pony? too lazy to look this up right now but i think 1998 was a good year for tim.

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  5. It was worked he with all the Super friends Jay-z,Total,SWV,who else that year?

    ReplyDelete

 
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